


The Illuminae Rebellion

by strawberrylark



Category: The Illuminae Files - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Angst, F/F, F/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24703783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrylark/pseuds/strawberrylark
Summary: The planet Terra is widely controlled by an insidious megacorp, BeiTech. Slowly but surely, they’ve claimed the globe as their own. When the icy town of Kerenza was destroyed, Kady Grant and her ex-boyfriend were forced to flee to the capital city. There they find the Illuminae group, a team of rebels trying to topple BeiTech’s reign. Blasters, hoverbikes, death, romance, bisexuality, and bad jokes: all are found in The Illuminae Rebellion.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

“Fucking BeiTech drones!” Kady cursed as she took off her helmet. Already-dried blood clung to her pink hair, sticking it to the cheap plastic visor. The drones had knocked one of the back lights off her hoverbike. Replacements weren’t cheap — she’d probably have to do another three jobs before she could pay off a new bulb, not to mention the covering.  
  
Fine, it _might_ have been her fault for grabbing that Palmpad charger on her way out, but she had needed a spare. If her Palmpad died and couldn’t get charged again, she was out of the job. She couldn’t afford getting kicked out of her tiny flat. The chances were too high of a BT-goon spotting her and turning her in.  
  
“Back already?” An annoyingly familiar voice called from behind her. She spun around, face-to-face with a pair of honey-brown eyes. He smiled, reaching his hand to her face. His fingers had barely brushed her cheek when she smacked him away, her grip tight on his wrist.  
  
“Don’t push your luck, Mason. Just because I have to get along with you doesn’t mean I like you.” Kady roughly placed her helmet on the dingy table. Ezra chuckled and she turned to meet his eyes. “What?”  
  
Ezra raised an eyebrow. “So now you don’t like me? Last time I checked you were just happy I wasn’t dead. In fact, happy is an understatement. I’d say…” He pondered for a moment with a teasing grin. “Overjoyed seems to be fitting, no?” Toying with the visor of her helmet, his smile faltered as he saw Kady’s scowl deepen.  
  
“Oh, so now me being glad you weren’t killed by the assholes at BeiTech translates to me liking you?” Her voice got colder with every word. “I’m not going to act like… all _that_ never happened.” She shoved past him, shuffling out of the closet-sized space that served as the Hub’s foyer. She was already back to thinking about hoverbike lights when she heard his heavy tread behind her. “Give it up already! You know what my feelings are on everything that happened between us. We’re done. Get the message and leave. Me. Alone.”  
  
Ezra tugged her around to face him, his pretty mouth contorting into a frown. “Shit, Kades, that’s the thing, isn’t it? What _did_ happen?” he pleaded. His expression was one of confusion and distress. “All I remember was a conversation about uni and you screaming that things were over before a couple of BeiTech phaser ships vaporized nearly everything in Kerenza. I don’t know what I did — or is it what I didn’t do? Fuck’s sake if I know!” He dropped his hands from Kady’s shoulders and slouched onto the alloy barrel that served as a chair. The neon light from the advertisements outside filtered in through the cracks in the widow, coloring his hair a million kaleidoscope shades as he buried his face in his hands. “Please tell me what I did. Please,” — his voice broke on this word — “just _talk to me,_ Kades.”  
  
Her eyes shot to where he sat, blazing as she clenched her fists. “Don’t you fucking ‘Kades’ me! And it had nothing to do with you! It had to do with the future and the fact that I thought I’d be moving two systems away and the fact that-“  
  
She straightened her back. She looked tired beyond her years, but her stare was unyielding. “Well,” she sighed, “we all knew that you didn’t intend to leave Kerenza. I had bigger plans. I wasn’t going to stay in that glorified freezer of a town any longer than I had to. I would have been happier to have you come with me, but since that obviously wasn’t going to happen, what other choice did I have? I’d been dreaming of leaving my whole life, and we’d only been dating for what, a little over a year? I couldn’t throw my life away for you, Ezra.”  
  
_It’s true and he knows it,_ Kady told herself. But she still couldn’t meet his wide eyes, not when he looked so broken and lost. Instead, she turned and walked into the lobby of the Hub. _We’re fighting a war here. There’s no time for sugarcoating things._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ella Malikova: lover of gossip. She and Kady have a quick convo full of banter and maybe a bit more of Kady’s personal biz than she’d like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for not updating in forever, and sorry that this chapter is maybe not quite as good as the last. It’s just a bit of filler until I figure out where I’m going with the plot! Hopefully I’ll have another update soon, but who knows. <3 Lark

“Kady! You’re back!” Kady’s attention was drawn to the back of the lobby, where a dark-haired girl sat in a hoverchair. The girl’s face broke into a grin as she waved Kady over to sit with her in front of the telescreen.  
  
“Hey Ella, what did I miss?” Ella was the cousin of one of the most important people in the Hub, Niklas Malikov. He and Ella had seen BeiTech’s cruelty firsthand, when most of their family were killed in a raid. Since then, the cousins had been working with the Illuminae group to fuck the megacorp over. Ella had taken on the role of Kady’s partner in technological crime. Her hacking genius was a huge asset to the team, and Kady found herself learning from the 15 year old more than she’d like to admit.  
  
In addition to her more practical talents, Ella also knew nearly everything that went on in the Hub, a combination of hanging out in the lobby most of the day working on projects and maybe just a bit of snooping in peoples’ personal files. Technically, she was just supposed to keep an eye out for any potential BeiTech rats, but she tended to learn a bit more than was probably protocol.  
  
Ella slouched in her chair, her face shriveling in mock disgust. “Still no rats, but considering that the hub is basically a giant block of cheese, I have a bad feeling we’ll hear squeaking soon.” She turned to Kady with a grave expression. “The only thing I _did_ see today is my cuz and his Princess talking about their plans tonight. Y to the uck. I may need to resign from the emotional distress that caused me.”  
  
She shuddered as Kady suppressed a snort. Turning to the huge screen in front of them, she swatted Ella’s arm for the control pad. “Anything good on the network?”  
  
Ella sighed, the telescreen casting shifting neon lights on her face. “No, it’s all just reruns of Super Turbo Awesome Team. Not any of the best episodes, but Moxie _does_ have some pretty badass moments.”  
  
This earned a teasing look from Kady. “I thought you said there was nothing good?” Ella rolled her eyes in return.  
  
“Oh, hey, was that Ez that I heard with you in the entry?” _Damn it Ella, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask._ On second thought, maybe Ella’s all-knowingness was less than great.  
  
“Yeah,” Kady hesitated, “he was just coming to make sure I’d gotten back safe.” She did _not_ feel like talking about the gory details of her shaky relationship with him.  
  
But Ella wasn’t done prodding. “Really? It sounded like you two were really heated in there, were you and Loverboy having a wittle couples fight?” She grinned and poked Kady in the ribs, but Kady just gave her an overly sulky look. “Geez, okay, not my biz. But tell me if you need me to get into his ultrapersonals. Loverboy’s _gotta_ have something in there that’s blackmail candy.”  
  
Despite Ella’s tough act and love for gossip, the girl was a good kid. Loyal to the end. _What would she have been if it wasn’t for BeiTech?_ It was BeiTech’s bioengineered disease that had landed Ella in that chair, their raid that had landed her in the Hub. Kady could almost picture her going to classes at one of the schools in Heimdall’s uptown, bitching to friends about boring teachers by the steps of the hoverlift, going to the VRcade with some cute girl. All of the teens in the Hub had lost their chances of normal lives because of BeiTech. No more geeball games or Lexi Blue concerts. Instead it was the tall building that they called home and the perpetual need to have their guard up.  
  
But they had each other, and they had a chance at revenge for the megacorp that had ended up fucking them all over.  
  
That was more than enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ezra has a nightmare and turns to the only person he can think of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a longer chapter! I had a lot of fun writing this. It was meant to be more fluffy but I think it ended up being more angst. Oops,,, anyways I hope y’all like the update! The next few chapters will probably have the action pick up !! <3

It was going to be a long night.  
  
After Kady had finished checking in with Ella, she’d grabbed a handful of NutraBarz and a can of Mount Russshmore before locking herself away in her quarters. The room was tight, with a small desk underneath a loft bed, a tiny dresser for her clothes, and a window looking out on the alleyway next to the Hub. She’d taped a few photos up on the walls: her and her mother, grinning at the camera; her and her cousin Asha at a Lexi Blue concert; her and Ezra dressed up for a party. She spent a minute looking at the last photo before sighing and sitting down at her desk. _Time to get to work._  
  
Tonight, Kady was trying to hack into the cams at one of BeiTech’s headquarters. There were rumors that BeiTech would attempt to overthrow Mayor Donnelly, Hanna’s father, in just a few days. If there was any information on this operation, it would be kept in their Uptown HQ. That was where their most sensitive information was kept, and it was Kady’s job to try and access it.  
  
Currently, she was butting heads with their firewall. BeiTech had really upped their cybersecurity since last time she’d cracked their files, a couple months ago. A scowl crept across her face. She’d need to get Ella’s help on this one.  
  
She didn’t want to think about what it would mean if she couldn’t get the info that she was tasked with finding. Not only would she be out of a job and housing, the Rebellion would have no way of predicting BeiTech’s next move. They’d have no way of knowing how to keep Mayor Donnelly in charge of the city.  
  
Kady pushed her chair away from the desk and took a sip of Mount Russshmore before checking the time on her palmpad. 1:00 AM. She let her head fall back against her chair. She was not getting paid enough for this. _But you_ do _want to see BeiTech gone, don’t you?_  
  
She was interrupted from her tired self-pity by her palmpad buzzing on her desk. _Who the hell is messaging me at one in the fucking morning? If Ella is telling me about something Moxy did, I will wring her little-_  
  
It was a notification from Ezra.

EZ: hey sorry 2 text so late  
o shit i didnt realize it wuz 1AM sorry  
i just ..  
i had a nightmare  
about kerenza  
it was pretty bad kades  
can i come to ur quaraters ?  
not in that way i just  
need to be around someone  
if ur not asleep that is

ME: of course  
you ok?

EZ: will be i think  
see you in a min

At 1:12 there’s a gentle knock on Kady’s door.  
  
Ezra’s standing there sheepishly, his face red, his hair messed up in a way that made her think that he’d been tugging on it.  
  
“Hey,” she said softly.  
  
“Hi,” he replied. His voice was hoarse. “Sorry, I just… this was a stupid idea, I’m sorry, I’ll just…” He took a step back like he was getting ready to leave, but Kady held her hand out to him. He hesitated a moment before taking it. He let her tug him into a hug.  
  
“It’s okay,” she whispered, reaching a hand up to smooth his hair. “It’s okay.”  
  
Ezra melted into her embrace. “I saw it all,” he mumbled. “The bombing, I heard the people screaming… it was like I was back there, Kades” His voice cracked and Kady could feel him start to cry again.  
  
“It’s okay Ezra. You’re here. I’m here. You’re safe. It’s okay.”  
  
They stood like that for a minute. She held him close as he cried for the life they’d lost, remembering the destruction that they’d seen on the day that the life they’d known crumbled around their feet. They held each other close, a brief moment anchored, trying to ignore the storm around them.  
  
After a while, Kady cupped Ezra’s cheek. “Do you want to stay here tonight?”  
  
“Please.”  
  
They spent the rest of the night curled around each other in the too-small loft bed. Kady still held onto Ezra’s hand, tracing her thumb across his palm. She kept herself awake until she heard his breathing even out and eventually slow down. She gazed at his beautiful face, her eyes flitting over the features she’d memorized so long ago.  
  
In the darkness of her room, pressed up against this boy in her tiny twin bed, with the weight of his hand in her own, she had the courage to say something that she couldn’t have in the daytime. “I love you,” she breathed, letting her eyes finally fall closed.  
  
If she’d kept her eyes open a moment more, she would have seen his eyes flutter open at those three words.


End file.
